With 165,000 monthly brand searches, The North Face has been described as the most prominent brand in the outdoor retail industry for 2024 by a new study.
However, the RetailX Global Sports sector report highlights that The North Face has grown from a niche outdoor pursuits brand to one of the hottest ‘street culture’ fashion brands out there.
As such, it is the epitome of how the line between sportswear brands and fashion brands has become blurred in recent times.
While The North Face shop in San Francisco played host to a concert by The Grateful Dead in the 1960s, it was rappers and MCs in the 1990s who made The North Face a desirable brand by wearing the company’s down-filled puffer jackets.
The peak of its recent powers was seen in 2019, with revenues growing by as much as 15% year-on-year. While subsequent years have seen lower growth, The North Face is still the bumper provider for parent company VF.
Web traffic has also been volatile, reflecting how these high-end items are typically bought in person rather than D2C. Supply chain issues across Asia as a hangover from the pandemic have slowed manufacturing and hit sales for the brand.
The lockdown in China that went on long into 2023 has also hit sales, with this key market slowing considerably for the company.
However, The North Face is bullish about its performance. Tight control of costs and supply chains investment in technology and R&D for its outdoor wear lines will likely lift the company in 2023.
The brand is often overlooked as a serious outdoor wear supplier thanks to the fashion noise. In reality, it has a number of key innovations that have seen it become the outerwear of choice for numerous adventurers and scientists in some of the coldest and remotest parts of the world. For example, the company is credited with inventing two game-changing product lines, including Thermoball, a synthetic insulation mimicking the capability of down.
The latest RetailX Global Sports Goods 2024 report discusses the wealth of localised players that attract a lot of sales and how they are utilising new channels to grow and reach their target customers.
Inside the report we answer the most important questions about how shoppers are buying differently, as well as to reveal the main factors driving this change.
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